The investment of time by adolescents in therapy calls into question our model of adolescence and its time frame as if it were for the therapist to answer these questions. At the extreme, some adolescents would come to therapy to go through their « adolescent crisis » ; should psychological immaturity be cured, and in what setting ? These questions are probably related to the psychological culture inspiring models of adolescence.
When the family or school structure sets the time frame of adolescence according to models dating back to the beginning of the century, the therapist will work with these reference points and try to interpret their psychical value. But when social structure becomes uncertain or absent, the clinical setting may become the only source of limits for the time transition between childhood and adulthood; in order to avoid the stalemate of endless therapies or educational work, the therapist will be confronted with the difficult task of inviting the adolescent, just out of childhood, to interiorize the limits of the setting into psychical limits between the child and the adult. The weakening of cultural models would therefore would therefore put a higher burden on the psychical work of adolescence.